Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or anything involving the crossover characters that I will be bringing into the story later on.

Note: this is a re-write of my story Aurora of the High Heavens. It's basically going to be the same thing, just with much more detail that I skimmed over originally. Be sure to check out the original if you're curious as to what's going to happen before I post the re-written chapters here!

Warning: SPOILER OF ONE OF THE RECENT MANGA VOLUMES! Seriously, it's a big hint, though I don't outright say it. For those of you who are keeping up with the manga, it's the thing with Natsu's origin.

Anyway, there will eventually be a bit of slash/yaoi/boy love in this story. If you have anything against homosexuality, either deal with it or stop reading. The two characters in question aren't really major characters in the story, though.

Enjoy!

Zeref stared at the group of Fairy Tail mages.

So these were the legacies left behind by Mavis Vermillion?

They were strong, he knew. It took a lot to be able to defeat one of the guilds in the Balam Alliance.

Still, they weren't strong enough.

It was disappointing, really, to find out that Natsu would not yet be able to kill him.

*MANGA SPOILER BEGINS*

He closed his eyes and gasped sharply as memories played out before his very eyes.

A library, books upon every table. A huge, strange-looking door (perhaps a gate?), draining magic from its environment. A baby, crying—

He shook his head as he tried to get the images out of his head.

Seeing Natsu had brought back things that he would rather have forgotten.

*MANGA SPOILER ENDS*

Glancing at the mages, one by one in an attempt to distract himself, his eyes fell upon the blonde girl.

Or, more specifically, the gold and silver keys he could see in a pouch on her belt.

"A Celestial Spirit mage." He murmured quietly. Thoughtfully.

The Fairy Tail mages strained to hear him.

Whenever something big happened, a Celestial mage tended to be in the middle of it all. Perhaps their magic was so potent because their magic was used to summon immortal beings from another world, he didn't know.

What he did know was that she was a security risk.

"Well, let's just take care of that, shall we?" he suddenly asked, slightly louder than before.

Suddenly, a large, black magic circle appeared on the ground in front of Lucy. Her eyes widened, and she tried to jump off of it, but it quickly became a black, swirling whirlpool.

"LUCY!" Natsu yelled, lunging towards her.

As the Fire Dragon Slayer broke the others out of their shock, they also tried to grab ahold of the young blonde.

Natsu might be able to survive an attack with Death Magic by using the scarf Igneel had given him, but Lucy had no such protection.

Unfortunately, they were too late.

As quickly as the whirlpool had appeared, Lucy was sucked in, vanishing in seconds despite her attempts (and that of her friends) to get out.

The whirlpool disappeared, and all was silent.

Until…

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" Natsu roared, trying to leap at the Black Wizard, only to be held back by Erza and Gray. "Guys, what are you doing? We have to get Lucy!"

"Natsu…" Erza whispered sympathetically.

"I didn't kill her." Zeref informed him, sounding slightly amused, though he still had a bored expression on his face.

Creepy.

"Now. I believe something else requires your…attention." Zeref said, before turning and walking away.

Natsu was about to try and follow him again, until the Fairy Tail mages heard a deafening roar.

"Is that…" Wendy gasped, her hand going up to cover her mouth as her eyes widened exponentially.

"It can't be." Gajeel muttered, equally shocked.

"The roar of a dragon!" Natsu finished, eyes wide as his attention was diverted from Zeref.

The mages cried out in shock as a huge black dragon flew towards them.

"Shit." Laxus muttered.

He just had to follow his gut feeling and come here to help, didn't he?

Hundreds of miles away, the rest of the Fairy Tail guild gasped or screamed in shock as a black magic circle appeared on the ceiling of their guild hall. Seconds later, Lucy fell out, landing painfully on a table.

"Lucy-nee!" Romeo shouted worriedly, the six year old rushing towards the girl, before turning to Macao. "Dad, help!"

The acting master jumped into action, ordering for the girl to be brought to the infirmary, and for Laki to go get Porlyusica as quickly as possible.

They were all shocked when the blonde shot up, looking around frantically.

"Lucy?" Kinana asked hesitantly, slowly walking towards the other girl.

"We need reinforcements at Tenrou!" Lucy demanded, scaring the others with the pure authority in her voice. They had never heard her so serious.

"W-what?" Macao asked, baffled.

"We were attacked by Grimoure Heart, who were looking for Zeref." She said impatiently, sitting up and running towards the communications lacrima. "Incidentally, we also ran into Zeref himself. Surprise, he's not dead. The others are still on the island!"

Fifteen minutes later, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, Mermaid Heel, and Quatro Cerberus had all sent out a dozen mages at Lucy's request.

They were too late.

Tenrou Island had been destroyed.

At least, that was the opinion of the others. Lucy, on the other hand, knew that it hadn't been. It hadn't merely been destroyed.

It had disappeared.

The question was: how?

It was silent as the guild processed the information that the other guilds had just given them.

"LEVY!" Jet and Droy suddenly cried, collapsing on the ground.

Macao collapsed onto his stool, mind trying to grasp the situation that they had found themselves in.

"They're still alive." A voice said.

Everyone turned to stare at the door to the infirmary, where Lucy was barely standing, using the door frame to help support her.

After all, everything that had happened had taken a serious toll on her body and magic.

"Lucy, you should still be resting!" Kinana cried, running over to try and urge her back into bed.

"I'm fine, Kinana." Lucy reassured her with a small smile. Her usually warm eyes were sad.

She glanced towards the others, all expressing their grief in different ways. "We can't lose hope, you know."

"What do you mean?" Droy asked bitterly, clawing his arm as if trying to wake himself up from this horrid nightmare. "They're dead."

"No, they're not." Lucy snapped, startling the others and grabbing their attention, just as she had intended. "Come on, think about it. Lisanna died, and then came back. Our strongest members were all on that island, an island with a tree that made our magic stronger and made it impossible for Fairy Tail mages to die while on that island."

Of course, she omitted the fact that the tree had been destroyed.

She knew in her soul that they were still alive, and she wasn't about to let her nakama give even an inch to the circumstances that were about to cripple them.

She stood firm against the slightly less depressed expressions. "They're alive. They have to be."

And with that, the remaining mages stood up straighter, some of them wiping their tears off of their faces with small smiles.

Romeo stared at Lucy in awe. He had refused to believe that everyone had been killed from the very beginning, and it was heartening to know that he wasn't the only person who had such faith in their family.

In that moment, she replaced Natsu as his role model.

Faith in one's friends and family was definitely something to admire.

"So…what do we do now?" Reedus asked quietly, once everyone had calmed down considerably.

"Well, Master Makarov left Macao in charge for the exams." Laki offered. "So we have a guild master."

Macao groaned, recalling how much paperwork Makarov had been forced to do because of the more destructive members of the guild.

'Of course, I don't need to worry about them.' He thought to himself bitterly.

"We're still down 20 members." Kinana said, wringing a dish towel nervously. "Including our Ace and the rest of our S-Class mages."

"So we recruit." Lucy said firmly, her eyes daring anybody to argue with her, as if they would.

"Where should we start?" Nab asked, deep voice determined.

Lucy smiled at him. "We start at home."

With that, everyone turned to Macao, who understood what they were thinking.

He sighed. He had wanted this to wait a few years…

"Romeo?" he ventured. "I know you've been taking lessons from the fire mage from Phantom Lord."

"Totomaru-sensei." Romeo said, blushing and wide-eyed.

Blushing because he had been caught, and wide-eyed because he might be young, but he wasn't oblivious.

Before Macao could finish his 'sales pitch', Romeo quickly said. "Yes. Please."

"You sure, kiddo?" Wakaba asked around his cigar.

"Positive." The six-year old said, startling some of the others by the intense determination.

When had the little boy most of them had known since he was born grown up?

With a smile, Kinana took out the guild mark stamp. "Where and what color, kiddo?"

Please review! Do you guys like this version of the first chapter more than the original? For those of you who've read it, at least. :)

Is Lucy wrong for not telling them that one of the things she's using to try and convince them that the others are alive no longer applied at the time she was sent off the island? Maybe. But that tree did exist, and considering the others are indeed still alive, what does a little white lie hurt anyone? Especially since she's absolutely certain that they survived?

Yes, Lucy is now the one who Romeo admires most, instead of Natsu. It helps that she's there, and his role model isn't just his memory of Natsu from when he was six. I had a reviewer who was annoyed with me for having a Romeo and Wendy scene in the original, because they hated Natsu and Romeo by association, and though I don't particularly care, hopefully this helps. Romeo WON'T be a mini-Natsu. Not that Romeo is exactly like Natsu anyway; I think he's more inclined to use his brain than the Fire Dragon Slayer.